VC students look forward to staying together

Victoria College students and childhood friends, from left, Anthony Santillan, 19; Jake Smiley, 20; Jake Delagarza, 20; and Karsen Klimitchek, 20, hang out together at the Victoria College Sports Center between classes. The four will start instrumentation work-related jobs at Turner Industries Group after graduating from Victoria College on Saturday.

IF YOU GO

• WHAT: Victoria College Spring 2014 commencement

• WHEN: 10 a.m. Saturday

• WHERE: VISD Fine Arts Center, 1002 Sam Houston Drive

• COST: Free but seating is limited

They've gone to high school together, taken all the same college courses together, and come Monday, they'll be starting at the same company together.

"Karsen's father went to college for the same thing, and we just kind of started talking about it and thought it'd be a good idea," Santillan, 19, said.

Missy Klimitchek, Victoria College registrar and mother to Karsen Klimitchek, said all four took the exact same courses each semester.

"I kept telling them that with an instrumentation degree they would be able to start a family and support themselves afterward," she said. "You can make up to $45,000 a year; all it takes is two years."

Delagarza, the comedian of the group, said his friends kept him from skipping class while studying at VC.

The temptations of fishing and hunting, which all four love, were hard to resist, said Delagarza.

"It becomes a challenge when you have such large breaks between classes and when you live 30 to 40 minutes away," Delagarza said. "So we had to find stuff to do in between."